


The Devil and The Fool

by BlueLiliesStars



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: BAMF Tim Drake, Gen, Low quality, i love my sad boy, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-01-24 01:19:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18561010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueLiliesStars/pseuds/BlueLiliesStars
Summary: Timmy boy finally snaps.Tim has always thought of himself as a fool.





	1. Chapter 1

Tim Drake had a virtue that nobody seem to believe that he possesed.  
He was patient.

He had to be, specially now, looking straight into the Devil's cold and merciless eyes.  
This Devil was different that the one he was taught to fear.  
This Devil laughed and drank champange with his parents, he danced and kissed women without nobody noticing the way his eyes were far too cold, far too old and with a smile far too fake.

Tim did.  
Tim noticed all the flaring signals.  
He did not fear him. He knew enough to not fear him.

Bruce Wayne was not the Devil because of the things the Dark Knight did in the dead of the Night.  
No, he was bitter and jaded and a mind full of what-ifs.  
Tim Drake saw Bruce Wayne as the Devil because when he was looking at him, he felt like that was the kind of man he would become.

That was a silly thought, he knows it.  
He couldn't be exactly as Bruce Wayne in many ways, but in others he could see it crystal clear.  
He could see the loneliness that he has so many times denied, would do to him in the future.  
He could see everything and nothing in Batman.

He believed in him in ways he coudn't formulate.  
It just was, as simple as that.  
As simple as Dick Grayson made flips and smiled and was perfect even when he was not.  
As simple as it was to Jason read all those classical books and memorize quotes.

It just was, there was no other way to say it.

It didn't mean that he couldn't see all the horrible things he had done, it didn't meant that he could ignore them and paint him as perfect.

He was human, he bleed.  
He was mourning in the only way he's ever known.  
Beating criminals, getting his knuckles bloodied in an attempt to quiet the sorrow.  
Bruce Wayne was his worst enemy and he knew it. He never tried to deny it.

Tim admired that.  
Tim wished he could help in some way, to ease the pain in some way.  
He had lost Jason too.

So he did.  
He helped the Devil named Batman.  
He sold his soul to him, he bleed for him, fought for him, searched and reached for a glimpse of that cold cold man, he tried to be as good as he could ever be to him.  
Guess he should have seen coming that his best would never be enough for him. Or for anybody.

He was watching this poor, broken man who had been so sad,so blue that began calling himself the Devil.  
He wished he could feel more sympathy for him. (Hate would work just as well)  
His mom would have been proud, she always liked when he acted bitter, he acted just like her in that moments.  
His dad would have been sad, he would have told him some stories from around the world in a quiet voice, he would have told him the meanings of tarot cards or other silly things.  
His mom liked the way his dad did things, in silence and subtle , never loud as he was in parties or meetings.

"Bruce, I'm tired"

"Red Robin, go back to work. We can't afford being tired"

"Aren't you tired, oh mighty Atlas?" Said Tim ignoring him

"Tim" A warning voice, lovely.

"I'm sure you are. I'm more tired since I met you that I feel like your age. I feel like if my voice is just an echo that you never listen.   
I see you repeating history, never bothering to actually listen.  
You make me feel so small, you and Damian make me feel like if everything I have done is nothing. Not worth it.  
Why my pain is different than yours?  
I'm hurt like Jason, yet you don't see it.  
I have not died, but sometimes, I kind of wish I had..."

This is it.

"I've been just a fool, Bruce"


	2. All the kings fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the kings rise and all fall.  
> This is how Tim sees it.

There are not many things that Tim could claim as his.

He had his mother's eyes, his father's hair, his mother's contexture.  
He was his mother's son.

He was Robin, for a while, but Robin was never truly his.  
He was Bruce's. Bruce light and joy, pride and sorrow.  
A never ending bittersweet memories of two boys who were no longer by his side in two different ways.

It was okay until it was not.

Until Bruce, his king in many ways, had fell and got lost.  
Until everyone around him believed that Tim had lost his mind for his loss, funny thing that no one really checked on him.

The heir had bursted like a hurricane at the castle doors and made a nest.  
The heir had fought him and won Dick.  
The heir had claimed what he said it was his to have without any doubt.  
The heir had said that he was unworthy.

Tim understood how inheritance worked, he was a heir to his parents kingdom before tragedy struck.  
It didn't meant that he hadn't been absolutely heartbroken.

He was never one to stay without doing someting. He hated slobs.  
So he armed himself with an umpenetrable armor and went to a quest.  
He could be a fool in private, he could be a fool for the rest of his life, but now he had a mission.

 

"I know we don't have the best relationship now...or ever. But could you please listen to me for once in your life?  
Like, really listen to me, not just hear the words. I really need someone to talk to and I don't want to go insane for real.  
I know there are a lot of rumors going around. They are bullshit. I have proofs, but I need a partner.  
You once said that you wanted me as your Robin,well does the offer still stand, Jason?"

"You are lucky that I'm in a good mood, Baby bird. Start singing"


	3. Does that make me crazy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brothers bonding

Jason Todd was not having a great day.  
To be fair,he hadn't had a lot of great days since a long time ago, when Robin was unbeatable and unbreakable.

The Robin he was looking at didn't looked like neither of those things.  
He resembled that porcelain dolls he had seen in the windows of fancies stores and moved with a so practiced "grace" not natural at all.  
Jason knew that it was the Pretender trying to impress him, it was always that with Tim.  
Tim, eager as Jason when he was younger, to please people around him, to try to be good enough to someone who barely gave him a second glance.  
That was Timothy Jackson Drake to Jason Todd.

In another life perhaps they would have left all the bitterness and bad blood behind, but in this one they were fighting with claws and teeth to be recognized, remembered and to feel real instead of the ghosts of children dead too soon.

"So,what you have for me, Pretender?"

"I have intel that says that Bruce is alive"

Jason almost felt pity for him, for a minute until he saw his eyes and decided that pity was stupid in this case.  
That would have been a classic Dick Grayson's move.

"I thought you were done chasing ghosts" Only said tiredly.

"He is alive, Jason" Affirmed Tim in a firm tone.

"So am I, doesn't mean that's true"

"But you are, you are here"

"Am I?" This was turning personal very quickly " 'Cause sometimes I wonder if I'm dead and this shit is only my own personal hell. Me being the asshole I always knew I would be"

Tim just laughed with a fake glee and for a horrible moment he thought that he laughed like Joker.  
As fast as the thought came, it was gone.

"Take makes two of us. Tough, I'm not sure if this is hell or heaven or whatever. This might be my mom's hell.  
His son dressing up like a christmas tree and hanging out with the damaged kids." Tim confessed, eyes looking around Jason's apartment and sitting in Jason's couch without hesitation " Yep,she would have hated it"

"As much as I enjoy talking about dead mothers, you promised me proof"

"And I will show you, if you come with me"

 

 

"This is why I fucking hate you"


	4. Don't mess with me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new glimpse on Tim's and Jason's minds.

"This is why I fucking hate you"

The situation was not idea, far from it, really.  
Though, no one could blame Tim for this mess, it was all Jason's fault.  
The same Jason that was tied to a chair in a goddamn freezer, Tim tought that at least if they were mafia guys they ought some originality.

"Shut up, they'll listen that the drug wore off" Explained calmly Tim, trying to think how to get both of them out of it "Just hold on a little more time"

"I don't know if you listen to that shitty rumors that I'm a masochist, but they are bullshit. I don't enjoy being tied up and sit look pretty--"

"I figured"

"-and if you don't want me to be more angry than I'm already am, you will let me free"

"Jason" Tim sighs "We need to know their info on Ra's"

"Why the hell Ra's Al Ghul would deal with low class criminals? They are not even all that big"

"Ra's would love to see Dick's and Damian's reactions when they realize what was going on right under their nose. It would be a mock" Was his answer, though, he wasn't as sure of it as he wanted to be.

"Sorry, forgot I was with the Ra's Al Ghul expert" Spat Jason. Which,uh, was actually not fake.  
He did had an understanding of Ra's beyond other people, Bruce included.  
Maybe it was because he did took time to analize Ra's not just as a strategist but a human being,sort of. (In sleepless nights he had wondered if Ra's even had left some humanity. He was afraid of the answer)  
Ra's was surprisingly fickle, he was dynamic and was always trying to search new ways to achieve his goals. He didn't really liked people, he despised them to a great degree; They were the dirt on his feet, the dark cloud on his sunny reing.

"Jason, how do you think I am" Whispered Tim.

"What the hell are you talking about right now,Timbo?" Asked Jason in return not in a good mood at all.

"I was just thinking..." What if I'm not good? What if there is something wrong with me?  
Mom and dad didn't really love me, I am just an expensive doll and heir for the dollhouse; to Bruce I was someone who worked for him. I gave everything I had, the best of me and it wasn't enough, it is never enough; Dick wanted someone to love, someone to take care like he couldn't to you. He didn't love me, not like he thought he did.  
He loved the idea of me, he loved the shy, quiet and smart little brother who looked at him like a star. Yet, I still found a way to dissapoint him; I like you. I really do like you, and you never will.  
Ra's, the man monster, the old entity with human's face likes me. There must be something truly wrong with me. He thinks, but instead he says "You don't like me. So you will be honest with me about how do you percieve me"

Jason shoots at him a look and frowns, whatever he saw on his face under the flickering light of the freezer made him think.

"You are...like a chamaleon"

"A chamaleon?"

"You change...you adapt. You take places when no one else does, you make desicions thinking logically. Banned you if you did something by heart.  
You try, try, try. And you never fucking stop."  
The last part was said with anger but he didn't knew where did it came from. Nope, not true. He knew.

"You remember me of Bruce"

"Oh" Was all he said. That was unexpected.  
He had thought of himself a little like Bruce in his lowest moments; He hadn't know if it was reassuring or not.  
But the thought of Jason comparing him with Bruce didn't set well. All of the bats knew how Jason thought of Bruce.  
Which, it was fair. He had forced himself to emulate Bruce in every way possible with bits of Jason, he thought that it would make him more loveable in the Dark's Knights eyes, but it backfired it. Now he knew the truth.  
He saw too much of himself in Tim, and the ever present self-hatred sparked within him.

"That is..." Tim paused, trying to steady his breathing and calm his beating heart. He could feel the familiar feeling of anxiety creeping inside of him." Unfortunate"

Jason looked at him with an unreadable expression, frowning slightly.   
He didn't looked as angry as before, so it counted as a win.  
He was looking at him and Tim was painfully aware that it was the longest time someone had looked at him in the past year.  
The realization made him want to laugh.  
How pathetic was he?  
Feeling kind of happy for been seen by a guy who tried to kill him multiple times.  
But, he was never known to do things the easy way, or the sound moral choice, for that matter.

It didn't matter in the end what he did,really.  
He had tried before to play by the rules, and it ended just like always: with a voice in his head whispering ugly truths about himself and voicing his fears. 

Mother had breed him to be great, to speak great truths about others as a swordsman slays it's enemies with his sword, he had been raised to inherit his mother's spiderweb, his mother's castle made of glass, turned in iron. He was a Drake.  
He was Janet's Drake son.  
She had wanted a boy with an armor, and that's what she got.

He wore his armor always, because masks not always were enough. Armors were.  
He had hoped that maybe he could found someone that made him feel safe and like if he ditched his armor and left it one day, they would love him.   
It was foolish, a childish dream that he never outgrew, he just wanted so badly for someone to say that they loved him, that he was wanted and cared after. That's what he wanted, what he had wanted all his life and probably would want until his beaten and bloodied heart inevitably collapsed. 

Right there, in the shitty lighting of the warehouse, with his cowl still intact, had never felt more naked.

"Yeah" Agreed Jason "No one on his right mind would want to be like B"

The rest of the time they were there was quiet.  
All that needed to be spoken had been said.


End file.
